Shakin' Stevens performs Last Man Alive in exclusive music session

He was one of the biggest stars of the Eighties, with 33 hit singles – including four UK number ones, now Shakin’ Stevens with his 12th album, Echoes of Our Time.

Even now, almost four decades after his first hit, Hot Dog, in 1980, one thing is clear – the musical desire still burns within Stevens.

This is shown on the rousing song Last Man Alive, with its infectious blend of guitars, brass and piano, which Stevens performs in an exclusive music session.

Shakin' StevensCredit:
Graham Flack

The album, Echoes of Our Times, grew from Stevens’s realisation that he knew little about his ancestry. His research uncovered tales of poverty and strife in the Cornish copper mines, of bravery and loss in war, of philanthropic preachers and stoic Salvationists, of children suffering and of family secrets and feuds.

These uncovered stories became the inspiration for many of the songs.

But the rock and roll style of This Ole House and Green Door has exited stage left, in favour of a bluesy, Americana sound.

Shakin' StevensCredit:
Graham Flack

Having touched on these styles of music during his career, the new songs are a big departure for Stevens.

“I have never before written a song that is so personal. Some of the tracks directly relate to stories and situations about my family past, while others are more of a social comment relating to the world that my ancestors, and we, live in” he explains.

The album also gave Shaky, 68, the opportunity to experiment and use instruments that he has used on stage but never before on a recording.

These include the harmonica, Dobro guitar, harmonium, banjo, flute and military snare, which give the album elements of folk, rock and delta blues.

“I would say that, in retrospect, in finding the origins of my family I have gone back to the roots of my music,” explains Stevens.

Shakin' StevensCredit:
Graham Flack

These roots began for Stevens in Cardiff on March 4, 1948, when he was born Michael Barratt, the youngest child of 13.

“When I was a kid out in the streets in Ely playing kick the can, British Bulldog, rat a tat ginger, all that innocent stuff, there was a guy I knew called Steven Vandewalker who, when we played rounders, would take the piece of wood, hold it like it was a guitar and say: ‘Ladies and gentleman, Shakin’ Stevens’,” he recalls.

“I thought, ‘that’s a wacky name, it’s not one you would forget’.”

Vandewalker never went into the music business, but the denim-wearing, hip-thrusting Shakey we know was born.

“The name Shakin’ Stevens is basically a blues name,” he adds. “It’s like Muddy Waters, or Lady Nesta.”

Echoes of Our Times is out on September 16th 2016 via HEC, distributed through Right Track / Universal